Where Children Sleep by James Mollison

I’m sure most of you will have already seen photographer James Mollison‘s excellent book, Where Children Sleep. The self-explanatory book has, quite rightly, been written about everywhere this year.

Serving both as an educational tool and discussion point for children , the photographs document the domestic situations of families across the globe. The contrasts are amazing: between children carrying weaponry because they have to fight to live, and kids who LIKE GUNS AND FIGHTING; between little girls of ten that work 9-5 and those whose hardest job is smiling properly for a beauty pageant. Truly fascinating stuff.

Anyway, at this most consumer-tastic time of the year – and, believe me, I’m a dedicated slave to retail so I’m not taking any kind of moral highground – I think it’s important to look at these kind of pictures. Much like Peter Menzel’s amazing What the World Eatsproject, it’s interesting above all else to see just how different children’s domestic situations are around the world.

Here’s just a small selection – pilfered from the Telegraph website, where you can also read the biography of each child.